Embodiments of the present invention relate to management of process versions over their lifecycles.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Certain platforms may be provided for management of business processes that are supported by different business solutions. Examples of such solutions include but are not limited to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relations Management (CRM).
The processes may exhibit a lifecycle. For example, the processes may first be designed based on business requirements, resulting in a “design” version of the process. Next, the processes may be implemented in specific software via customization, resulting in a “build” version of the process.
The processes may then be tested, resulting in a “test” version of the process. Finally, the processes may be deployed into production for operation, resulting in a “productive” version of the process.
Over the course of the lifecycle of a process, it may be desirable to change different versions independently from each other. For example, it may be desirable to modify a “design” version of a process without impacting a “productive” version of the process.
Conventionally, in managing different process versions, copies of the corresponding objects making up the process may be made. However, the data comprising such corresponding objects may be quite voluminous.
Given that a significant portion of the data of the object may not need to be changed (e.g. where no changes are necessary within a new version), the conventional approach may result in unnecessary manipulation of large volumes of data, and consuming processing and storage resources. This may also be true for management of the archive process versions used for comparison and merging operations.
Accordingly, the present disclosure addresses these and other issues with methods and systems relating to efficient management of process versions.